Bethlehem Monastery (Koblenz)

The Bethlehem Monastery in Koblenz-Pfaffendorf

The Bethlehem Monastery is a monastery of the Capuchin Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in Koblenz . The Klarissenkloster was founded in 1904 in the Pfaffendorf district . The Capuchin Poor Clares live in a strict enclosure , in complete silence and personal poverty. They cultivate eternal adoration in front of the Holy of Holies in layers and earn their living by making hosts for worship. The monastery is named after the city of Bethlehem , traditionally after the birthplace of Jesus Christ .

history

Mother Ignatia von Hertling was the first superior of the Bethlehem Monastery, founded in 1904

The foundation of the Bethlehem Monastery in Pfaffendorf was initiated by the Capuchin Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in the Maria Hilf Monastery in Mainz . At the end of the 19th century the number of sisters in the Mainz monastery increased so much that it was decided to build a new monastery. Long-time superior in Mainz was Ignatia von Hertling , who was in contact with Paula Reinhard from Ehrenbreitstein . Both knew each other because Paula Reinhard entered the Mainz monastery in 1873, but had to leave it again after a few weeks for health reasons. Together with her sister Maria Reinhard (1848–1919), she inherited a considerable fortune from her father Franz Reinhard (1814–1893). The siblings were marked by a strong piety and so both declared on January 12, 1902, that they were ready to support the Mainz sisters financially in founding the monastery.

After Rome granted the church approval for the founding of the monastery on January 30, 1903, a villa and property were purchased on the heights of Pfaffendorf with a view of the Rhine Valley . The foundation stone for the new monastery was laid on July 2, 1903. By 1904, a monastery building including a monastery church was built on the property according to plans by the Berlin architect August Menken , which was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on October 17, 1904 by the Trier Bishop Michael Felix Korum . Ignatia von Hertling was elected the first superior of the new monastery on the same day. The Reinhard siblings spent their twilight years in the Villa Emmaus. In August 1905 there were 19 sisters in the monastery.

After the Koblenz monastery received a large increase in sisters, further worship monasteries were founded in Melville (South Africa) in 1931 and in Swellendam in 1953 . During the Second World War , the Koblenz sisters were threatened by the National Socialist rulers with the dissolution of the monastery. This could only be averted because they signed up to work for the Wehrmacht and sewed hospital linen and repaired military sweaters. The monastery was badly damaged in the air raids on Koblenz on November 21 and December 11, 1944. The monastery was evacuated and seven sisters were killed in the war.

After the capture of Koblenz by American troops, the first sisters returned to their destroyed monastery in April 1945. The rebuilding of the Bethlehem Monastery took more than 20 years. The exam was closed for the first time in November 1953. The monastery church, which remained undamaged, served the parish of St. Peter and Paul as an emergency church for six years after the war . After the war the number of sisters grew to 40. They made their living with gold and silk embroidery and the manufacture of church art and everyday objects. Villa Emmaus, north of the monastery building, was demolished in 1973. Today 16 sisters live in the monastery who live exclusively from the wafer bakery.

construction

monastery

The Bethlehem Monastery consists of an elongated monastery building along Hermannstrasse and ends at the north end with the monastery church. On the west side down the slope, there are monastery wings, which are arranged around two inner courtyards, originally with 30 monastery cells . The main building on Hermannstrasse has two floors and, due to the slope, three floors. The plastered building in historicizing forms was built from light sandstone . The facade on the valley side, which was not destroyed in the war, has two corner projections , on the north side with a crooked hip and on the south side with a tail gable . The windows show neo-Gothic shapes with grooved walls . The front along Hermannstrasse, which was completely rebuilt after the war, was built in the historicizing style of the 1950s. It has broadly fluted arched windows and a protruding semicircular stair tower with a conical roof . All roofs were covered with slate .

Monastery church

The monastery church Herz Jesu with neo-Romanesque elements has a round arch frieze on the eaves and on the gable . A large rose window is built into the north wall over a three arcade. This chapel consists of two parts, the nuns choir belonging to the enclosure , above which a polygonal roof turret with a pointed helmet rises, and the community part. Both sections are of the same length and are separated from each other by a transverse wall that protrudes from the roof area. The window zone also reflects this separation. The row of large arched windows is interrupted by two raised four-way arcades with columns, capitals and fighters . The single-nave hall with a clear separation of the two areas by a massive Schwibbogen is oriented to the south. There is an altar on either side . In the middle under a gable arcade and visible from both sides is an exhibited monstrance , the center of Eternal Adoration. The entrance door to the community area is decorated with particularly elaborately forged leaves and tendrils with a relief-like tympanum and leaf frieze above it. In the community area, an oratorio of the Reinhard siblings opens on the west side at the level of the upper floor . From here a still preserved two-storey connecting corridor in half-timbered construction leads in the direction of the demolished Villa Emmaus.

Bethlehem Monastery with the monastery church (right)

Interior of the Herz Jesu monastery church

The center of eternal adoration with the monstrance

Monument protection

The Bethlehem Monastery is a protected cultural monument under the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is located in Koblenz-Pfaffendorf at Hermannstrasse 29 .

The Bethlehem Monastery has been part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002 .

literature

Fritz Michel : The art monuments of the Rhine province. The church monuments of the city of Koblenz , ed. by Paul Clemen, Düsseldorf 1937, pp. 319–322 (Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz. Twentieth volume. 1st section).
Fritz Michel: The art monuments of the city of Koblenz. The profane monuments and the suburbs , Munich Berlin 1954, (Die Kunstdenkmäler von Rheinland-Pfalz, first volume).
Wolfgang Schütz: Koblenz heads. People from the city's history - namesake for streets and squares. Verlag für Werbung Blätter GmbH, Ed .: Bernd Weber, Mülheim-Kärlich 2005 (2nd revised and expanded edition), p. 239 f. and pp. 437 f., ISBN 224-0-00345-226-2 .
VVV - Verkehrs- und Verschönerungsverein Pfaffendorf eV (Ed.): 100 Years of Bethlehem Monastery 1904-2004 , Lahnstein 2004
Ulrike Weber (edit.): Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Volume 3.3: City of Koblenz. Districts. Werner, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-345-9 .